Fiction

I could walk through my garden forever

If I had a flower for every time thought of you... I could walk through my garden forever.

~Alfred Tennyson

Dan POV

"Dan!" My mother squeals in my ear. "How are you sweetie? Got a girlfriend yet, or do I need to set you up?"

I pull the phone away from my ear slightly, and turn down the volume.

"Yeah... about that, I need to tell you something."

"You have a girlfriend? Who? When do I meet her?"

"Well, not exactly no. And you've already met them."

"Ooh, is it that Carrie girl? She was nice and you two seemed close."

"A little... closer to home."

"Oh I'm tired of guessing! Tell me!"

"Well, I don't have a girlfriend exactly."

"Spit it out Dan!"

"Well, I have a boyfriend."

"What?"

"I have a boyfriend. It's Phil."

"No. No, you can't! That's wrong! It's a sin! No son of mine is going to betray me like this. You sort yourself out, young lad, or I will find Phil, and forcibly take him from you."

She hung up.

I stare at my phone in shock. What can I do? I can't break up with Phil and break his, and my, heart, but I can't stay with him and risk my mum finding him, and, from the sound of it, "torturing the gay out of him".

Shit.

Shit.

"Phil? Can I talk to you a second?" I shout, and I hear scampering footsteps before he pokes his head around the doorframe.

"Of course, babe. What is it?"

Oh god.

He must have seen me panicking, because he immediately sat on the bad and pulled me into him.

"Hey, hey, hey. Calm down Dan, I'm right here, you'll be fine."

But you won't.

"That's the problem."

"What?"

"You're with me."

"Dan, what are you saying?"

"I can't do this."

"Dan..."

"Let me speak."

"Okay." He said, moving away from me, careful not to touch me. I could feel my heart slowly shattering.

"Look, I just think this is working. I have to go away for a while, you should get out, meet some new people, just forget about me. I'm not right for you, lion. This needs to stop, before it gets anymore serious. I'm sorry."